A deliciously lazy, stretching, sun-watching, cat-napping moment of solitude.  All the more poignant given the general tenor of Kertész’ novel in which the protagonist makes it out of Auschwitz alive only to find himself confined in a different totalitarian system, the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. 

No wonder he luxuriates in rare moments of peace and quiet. He lived in a world where lolling and languor could land you in prison.

Also love that triologism, a cat’s eye view of an ‘adventure-packed roof’ opposite. 

‘To loll about alone in languid bliss in the big dormitory, watching how the sun reaches the apex of the chestnut tree standing in the garden while a cat, with its inimitable gait, curling up the tip of its tails, prowls along the indescribably adventure-packed roof opposite, with the intricate hiding places of its chimneys and turrets.’ 

Source: Kaddish for an Unborn Child, Imre Kertész, trans. Tim Wilkinson (New York: Vintage Books / Random House, 2004), p. 99

Photo credit: Viktoria Hall-Waldhauser at unsplash.com